


Of Paperwork and Sake

by CommanderEivlys



Category: Bleach
Genre: Drabbles, Friendship, Gen, Loyalty, Snapshots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-18
Updated: 2013-04-21
Packaged: 2017-12-08 21:20:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/766141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CommanderEivlys/pseuds/CommanderEivlys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How does a cold child prodigy with an obsession for paperwork trust his life to an alcoholic with a heart of gold who likes to smother him with her chest? Different snapshots of the relationship between the Captain and Lieutenant of the Tenth Division. From awkward beginnings to trust, loyalty, and friendship, including the bad and good moments, and secrets they'd never share. Fluff, heartbreak, and simple understanding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Turn a new leaf

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, let's admit it: I was going crazy without Tumblr and with Mass Effect over and Doctor Who only once a week, so I suddenly reread the entirety of Bleach on a whim. Also because I was in desperate need of fictional words. No lies-- this series used to be my childhood refuge. But while rereading it, I suddenly got a far more important understanding of the characters, their motivations and relationships. One relationship that particularly fascinated me was the one between Rangiku and Toushiro. God, these two. They are hilarious, completely diverging and yet so loyal to one another, and their relationship is built on so much trust and respect. You can't help but love them. While I don't ship them romantically, I find them endlessly entertaining and so decided to capture a few moments of their life, in sadness, anger, or hilarity. So here, have my first try at these two. 
> 
> Take a note that this is not beta-ed, and can be considered as a one-shot rather than the beginning of a work. While all these drabbles WILL be linked to one other by headcannons or direct reference, they can all be seen as separate works.
> 
> Constructive criticism is always welcome, especially when dealing with the characters. Thank you!

The Captain haori feels heavy and too big for him, as though it were made for another man ( _a man with black hair and a wide smile who told him **You will make a fine captain one day!** )_. He plays with the idea of having it refitted for a moment, and pushes the idea aside as he looks down at the mountain of paperwork on Captain Shiba ( _no, not Shiba, **his** desk, this was his now_ )—his desk. He sighs and starts reading. He’d been dealing with a lot of the paperwork before he got that haori anyway, but this time he would be actually making decisions, not just signing and writing down reports. His division is in heavy flux, what with the captain disappearing in the living world, and he wants to take the reigns as soon as possible, calm them down and give them back a semblance of order. As such, he must decide about his seated officers.

He’s been working on it for the past two hours when the screen slides open and Matsumoto steps in. The strawberry blonde woman is definitely unlike her previous self, the closest to serious he’d actually seen on her face. He doesn’t blame her. Losing a captain is a terrible thing, especially since the two of them were close. He used to be a third-seat, and so despite the huge amount of paperwork he ended up working on for the two of them, he’d never really been part of their world. Lieutenants and Captains slept in the same building, ate together, worked and talked and marched in battle together. It might not have been an equal relationship, with the difference in rank and power, but it certainly must be one of trust and mutual cooperation. No wonder Matsumoto is miserable.

She lifts up her head when she sees him at the desk and bows, trying to smile. For a moment he almost feels like a smug little boy, wanting to yell at her _See? I was quicker than you were! I’m not the child you thought I was!_ but the expression on her face is not a mocking or bitter one. She doesn’t blame him or feel jealous or petty. Hell, he almost expects her to loudly complain about kids becoming Captains these days, but he can only see defeat and sadness in her posture. She is not here to complain. Quite on the contrary.

“Toush—Captain Hitsugaya,” she manages to correct herself. “Forgive me for disturbing you at this time of the night.”

He glances at the clock on the wall. Well. It _is_ rather late, but he doesn't mind missing out on a bit of sleep anyway. “It’s alright, Lieutenant. At ease.” The words feel almost strange coming out of his mouth, thinking of her as a subordinate instead of a superior officer, and he suddenly realizes that she isn’t the only one disoriented with the change in ranks. “What brings you here?” _Apart from the fact that you’re the Lieutenant of this Division and this is your office as well?_

She manages a real smile this time, not timid, but not like her old self either. A polite, acknowledging one. “I’m just here to take my stuff, so I can move back in the barracks tomorrow.”

“Very well.” A pause, and then what she’s just _told_ him registers fully. “Wait. You’re moving out?”

“Of course,” she pauses, and the next words are obviously painful for her to pronounce. “For your new Lieutenant, I simply cannot take up their space.”

He stands up almost brutally, and he realizes that the temperature has just fallen a few degrees. Dammit. He needs to learn to control his sword, especially since he has just achieved Bankai. He’s not angry at her statement, just shocked. But it makes sense. She might have saved him from the slums of Rukongai, but she knows that a Captain’s choice of Lieutenant is personal and must be the best for both of them, so she assumed that she would not hold the position any longer, especially since he’s been changing other things around the division.

Truth be told, they haven’t been that close, but then he is close to nobody except maybe Hinamori. She’s kept an eye on him since she found him, and cheerfully relegated most of her work to him when he became third-seat.  But she hasn’t mentored him or been particularly close to him. Matsumoto’s interests lay in three specific things: socializing, getting drunk, and skipping work. He abstained from all three and so they never really became close. Even worse, they bickered almost constantly and were anything but a productive pair.

Of course she expected to be relegated to another seat.

But he hasn’t planned for any of that.

Truth be told, Toushiro might have bickered with Matsumoto a few times, but he still respects her abilities as a Lieutenant. She might have slack off paperwork, but she united and cheered up the entire division with her charm. He’d seen her giving a few words of praise here and there, throwing a smile, looking into several division members’ requests and pleas and dealing with them efficiently. At first, he’d thought it might have been her natural beauty that impressed the men, but he soon realized that it went far deeper than that. When Matsumoto gave praise, men and women alike would soon boom with confidence and strive to work harder. When she laughed at their jokes and told her own, they regarded her with affection and admiration. When she ordered them on a battlefield, they obeyed quickly and with a fierce loyalty that he didn’t see with most Lieutenants. It wasn’t obedience. It was absolute loyalty and trust in their superior officer.

Toushiro can use that, especially now.

He clears his throat as the woman looks surprised. “You don’t have to do this, Lieutenant.”

Her eyes widen at the use of the title, and he can see some hope creeping back into them. Nevertheless, she replies steadily: “You don’t have to take me on because of pity or debt to Captain Shiba, you know.”

“It’s not,” he says in a voice tinged in annoyance that she would even think that. But she’s making a strong point there, one that is impossible to ignore. “I am asking you to be my Lieutenant, Matsumoto. Not out of obligation, but because I genuinely believe that you’ve done good work in the past and I can use your abilities.”

Ah, and here comes the problem. She’s not used to this, not used to deferring to a child, much less to one she found in Rukongai a mere few years ago, and even less so her previous subordinate. So he has to ask her to swallow her pride by doing this.

Maybe she doesn’t want to deal with him. Maybe he’s insulting her by even making the offer. However, he knows that she is a good Lieutenant and that losing her rank would be even worse. He thinks of a compromise. “I understand that this is a difficult situation for you. If you want to, I can request a transfer. I’ll take somebody else’s Lieutenant, and you can work in another division at your current rank.” The Eighth, probably. He’s seen Lieutenant Ise’s hard work—they could probably be very effective together. And Matsumoto and Kyoraku would get along very well, though the level of productivity of the Eighth might take a nose dip while theirs sky-rocketed.

“What? No!” she throws out her hands, and this time she is far closer to the outgoing woman he’s seen in the past few years. “No way! No offense Tou—Captain, but this division is my home, and it has been for quite a while now. I can’t go now! I’ll step down if you want to, but if I go, who will keep Kaomi under control and help Shigeko find her family in Rukongai and stop Yuuka from getting bullied and—”

She realizes she’s babbling and promptly shuts up, and he honestly wants to burst out laughing because he’s never seen Matsumoto shut up, at least of her own volition. Hell, she almost looks shy here.

He thinks of what she’s just said. The people she mentioned are part of the division, but apart from name and face, what does he know about them? He’s going to take care of them for a few decades, maybe more, and he has no idea who they are or what they want. And even if he did try to find out, he knows he will never be able to talk or laugh or share with them like Matsumoto can.

The blonde woman looks as though she thinks she’s just condemned herself to demotion, but instead she’s just convinced him entirely. He needs her as his Lieutenant if he is to succeed. He’s never been good with people in general—from the streets of Rukongai to his Academy days. He can lead and take decisions and even inspire respect, but the key to his division’s absolute loyalty is standing in front of him.

He might regret this later. They might argue often—Matsumoto is shy now, but he knows that tomorrow she will smother him with his bosom and complain loudly and get drunk at God knows what hour. But she will always challenge him and get him to see a different view of the world, one he might need in times of crisis. And she will be able to get him to understand his own people, or at least for them to forge a bond. And this is what he needs, as much as his pride stings.

He sighs and sits down. This is going to be a long few decades, if not centuries.

“Matsumoto, bring me your Lieutenant insignia.”

She hesitates, but gets the badge out anyway—tied to her belt, of all things—and hands it to him. He turns around to face her side, and reaches out for her arm. She makes a noise of surprise as he reaches (dammit, why did she have to be so tall when he was still so short) behind her arm and ties the badge around it. The entire affair has a ceremonial touch of sorts, but that was his intention. Her right hand reaches her left arm, where the badge is now fully visible.

“You’ll have to clean it regularly,” he barks, sounding very much like the military leader he is. “You are a representative of our division, so act like it.”

His words aren’t too hard, though, and a large smile breaks out on her face. “You’re sure? Seriously?”

“I’ll notify the Commander tomorrow that I’ve made my choice.”

And then he steels himself as she squeals and launches herself at him, smothering him in her ample bosom. He protests loudly and angrily “Matsumoto!”

“Sorry, sorry Captain, I was just very happy!” She releases him, slightly humbler now. He wants to yell at her very loudly, maybe use his Bankai to teach her a lesson. The thought of the chaos that his ice dragon would cause (and the paperwork involved) stops him. He takes deep breaths to calm himself down. He is a mature, responsible adult, more so than the woman in front of him, and he shall act like it, prepubescent or not.

Eventually he waves her away. “Fine, fine, you’re dismissed for the night.”

“Yes, sir!” she grins and turns to leave.

“You’d better be there at 0800 sharp, though. We’ve got a lot of work ahead.”

“Whaaa—so early?” she turns and pouts. Just a minute ago, she thought she’d be demoted and now she was attempting to slack off—he’ll never understand that woman.

“0800, Matsumoto, and if you’re not there I’ll drag you out of bed myself.”

She huffs. “Fine.” She turns around to leave, but once again she hesitates and calls out: “Captain?”

“Hmm?” he’s returned to his paperwork, trying to figure out a far simpler world, which is in numbers and strategies and reports and names rather than actual people who slack off and dismiss it all.

“Thank you. For keeping me, I mean.”

He pauses for a moment and looks up at his Lieutenant, the woman with whom he will share a life for the next few years. “Go to sleep, Matsumoto.”

She grins as she closes the door, while he groans. Decades of Matsumoto. This might be the worse idea he’s ever had.

But he thinks of the woman who followed him to his shack and who was the first one to make sense of his upside-down world ( _you can hear a voice, can't you?_ ) and can’t help but think _No. This might actually turn out allright.  
_


	2. Thunderstruck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta-ed, as usual. Please rate and review, all criticism is widely welcome. Sorry for the delay.

The first time they go into battle as partners comes as a surprise to them both. It’s been five weeks since Toushiro has received his white haori and the two of them are leading part of their division to patrol the outskirts of Rukongai. Nothing lurks out there apart from the occasional bandits and a few Hollows, but it’s also the reason why it’s a perfect hideout. So the Shinigami check it regularly, in case Hueco Mundo or any other sort of enemy has sent spies or soldiers to prepare for war.

It might seem paranoid, but they are soldiers. Soldiers always prepare for battle.

Truth be told, Toushiro has trouble thinking of Matsumoto as a soldier. A leader of sorts, yes. But he has never seen his lieutenant in combat, and she doesn’t seem like the type anyway. It’s not just her unpractical clothing, but the way she moves, lazy and relaxed. He cannot deny she has power, yes, he feels it every time he’s in her presence, but can she really battle on the same levels as other lieutenants?

It turns out that the answer is no, she’s even stronger. Not quite on pair with a Captain of course, but still, she’s one of the strongest lieutenants in the Gotei 13, with Hinamori and Abarai.

They’ve separated into two groups, Matsumoto leading one and he the other. When he gives her task, she simply nods and orders her people in a firm voice, rapidly arranging a formation and barking out orders: “Sakagashi and Nobu, you are the most proficient in Kido. Cover our tracks, five hundred meters behind. Sachiko, behind me. Yuuko, you’re the youngest and the most inexperienced, in the center. No ifs or buts, you’ll have all the time in the world to shine later on, but right now you’re only here to get a grasp on your later duties.”

She’s quick, efficient, and carries an easy air of authority that makes every member scramble to meet her orders. Toushiro feels a tinge of pride. Despite her laziness in the office (and his constant trips outside the division so he can drag her away from her drinks and gossip to do some actual work), he’s obviously chosen the right person. Matsumoto knows every person in the division, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to charm them and make them willing to follow them in hell and back. Whenever one of his men come to ask for a favour, she’s behind him to whisper the man’s name and particularities, leaving his soldier flattered at being recognized by his Captain and thus, planting the seeds of loyalty.

The Gotei 13 isn’t just military. It’s a bunch of people with very different abilities and personalities who have to work together and as such, be coordinated by their superior officers. And to do so, he needs that loyalty. He might not be very good with social interactions in general, especially as his youthful appearance tends to make others underestimate him, but Matsumoto’s advice has proved invaluable.

He gives her a rendezvous to regroup in two hours in the 78th district, but before he can tell her how best to go there she winks at him and smiles: “Easy peasy, I know the place. See you there, Captain.”

Before he can ask her how she happens to know one of the worst districts in Soul Society, she barks a few orders to her group and they shunpo towards the east, where the deserted plains lay. He hesitates briefly, and then barks orders of his own, his people responding accordingly and following him into the forests.

 For over an hour, they move quietly and swiftly amongst the trees. That doesn’t really bother him. Hollows have been scarce recently, and the few bandits who haunt the woods would never dare attack openly a group of Shinigami, even if they‘re desperate. The fact that a Captain is amongst them is also discouraging.

When they arrive near a spring, Toushiro decides to let them catch a brief break. The weakest’ collective groans of reliefs confirm his decision as the right one—he always forgets that he moves quickly and how hard it is for some of them to follow. The fact that they haven’t approached him with that fact does bother him, though, and he makes a mental note to talk to them once they’ve regrouped to talk about that.

The Shinigami either sit against the trees to talk, or rush to the spring to splash their faces with cold water. While he watches them, he suddenly feels a spiritual pressure not far from here, and the nature of it makes his sword hand itch with anticipation. A Hollow is nearby.  He ponders briefly whether to destroy it himself quickly, or to send a small band to deal with it. The latter option is more attractive—some of his people are itching for a fight or need experience with dealing with Hollows. He calls out three names—his Seventh Seat, a strict woman with silver hair and a small, dagger-like Zanpakuto strapped to her leg, as well as two Academy-fresh youngsters, a girl with dark skin and a large smile and a boy with ruffled blond hair and who is clearly mortified to be talking to him. He’s suddenly struck by the fact that he is just as young as they are, yet they seem like children to him. What makes the difference then? Is it only his power? Or does wielding the Ice Dragon bring you more maturity than most youngsters your age?

The small band receives its orders, than dashes in the forest. He decides that they will wait for them a moment longer. One moment turns into two, then five, and ten. They still haven’t returned. Toushiro is openly scowling now. What’s taking them so long?

It’s only then that he hears the scream of a young boy, and the Hollow’s spiritual pressure suddenly increasing.

Toushiro swears under his breath, then yells at the others to get into combat formation. They shunpo to the place where he sent the small group, expecting disaster. As he is quicker than the others, he goes ahead and arrives first.

The girl with dark skin is wounded, her leg twisted at an unnatural angle and features contorted in pain, while the boy is applying a healing spell to a deep gash in her chest, his movements erratic and his shoulders shaking with sobs of fear. His Seventh Seat, however, is battling a huge Hollow with spider-like limbs and a piercing shriek that makes his eardrums ring. It’s obvious by the gashes on her face and heavy breaths that the creature is stronger than they’d previously thought.

Toushiro grabs Hyorinmaru but doesn’t release him, instead choosing to cut it open in the side, forcing the huge shrieking creature to turn its attention towards him. As its face is completely exposed, he lunges forwards and brings the sword down, and the creature releases a final screech that echoes across the forest as it dissolves into ashes.

Silence falls, and Toushiro nods briefly at his Seventh Seat, impressed by her courage. It’s obvious that she had tried to distract the Hollow away from the two youngsters. Matsumoto had told him her name, but he doesn’t remember it exactly now, and would rather call her by rank rather than using the wrong name. He opens his mouth to give her thanks when suddenly he feels one, no—two _three five ten twenty **fifty more**_ spiritual pressures erupt at the edge of his mind. He suddenly realizes that the creature’s unnatural screech hadn’t been one of despair, but of call for help. Or more precisely, an invitation to dinner.

The rest of his squad has appeared amongst the trees, several of them dashing to help the injured girl and the Seventh Seat, who was now staggering in the forest’s floor. He barely has the time to approve of this, as the creatures are approaching _fast_ now and he only has to turn towards the sky to see the first of them arrive. He quickly yells at the strongest to protect the injured and weakest, knowing full well that they will be the first to be targeted. Hollows are like most predators – go for the easiest prey, the sick, the injured. He’s already decided that they will feast on nobody tonight.

Hyorinmaru roars at the back of his mind, ready to fight. He releases his Zanpakuto, the temperature dropping as he does so and the ice dragon erupting from his sword. He can hear a few gasps from the members of his squad—they’d never seen his sword’s spirit before, since he’d been training to attain Bankai in secret and never really socialized anyway. But they quickly stop gawking and he hears several other Zanpakuto releases and Kido spells being prepared.

The first Hollow doesn’t even have the time to howl before being encased in its glass coffin, and several of them follow quickly. He tries not to overdo it and to keep his spiritual pressure down, knowing full well that its effect can harm some squad members. As such, he is slower than he wish he could be, but holds his own easily enough.

Except that the Hollows continue to arrive. For every one that he kills, another five add themselves to the monstrous pack. Toushiro curses as one of them slips from him to target his people. He hears a yell, than a shriek of agony as they bring it down.  But then another arrives, and then another. Soon there are so many of them that they darken Soul Society’s sky, and Toushiro briefly wonders if there is such a thing as a nest or mating season for Hollows. How could so many of them keep quiet in the outskirts of Rukongai? Before he can start mentally planning a report and recommendation to Yamamoto about investigating this, he hears one girl in his squad cry out. Shigeko, he recognizes, his Fifth Seat. He dashes back and realizes that she’d interposed herself between the injured girl and a sneaky, smaller Hollow that had leapt forwards for the kill. Her shoulder is bleeding terribly and the creature readies itself for another attack just as Toushiro decapitates it. “Heal her!” he yells as a dazed soldier by her side before dashing into battle again.

Another of his soldiers is wounded, and another as the Hollows continue to appear. At this rate, one of them will suffer death instead of injury. He lets more of his massive spiritual energy escape of his small frame, but quickly realizes that the two youngsters are overwhelmed and crushed by it and so is forced to lower it again. Bankai is out of the question, not if he intends no harm to them. For the first time in his life, Toushiro curses the destructive power of his sword. There is no way he can fight fully without hurting anyone around him.

Perhaps he could have them retreat and deal with the Hollows alone. No, part of the monsters would be sure to follow them. Shunpo away? Unlikely. Releasing his sword fully and hoping they’d survive? Too many risks—

It’s at that precise moment that right over the huge herd of Hollows, several black-clad forms materialize and drop on their backs silently, before raising their swords and stabbing. Howls of agony pierce the night and a gap appears in the Hollows’ ranks, in which a blonde-haired figure appears.

Toushiro sees the monsters turn their attention to his lieutenant, and yells a warning to her. He hears her next two words as clearly as if she’d been standing right next to him.

“Howl, Haineko.”

Her sword turns into ash, and barely a few moments later one, two, three Hollows collapse into dust. The gap in the mass of creatures has widened, and Matsumoto yells towards him: “Captain!”

Immediately he understands what she means for him to do and launches himself through the gap, above the herd of Hollows and into the sky. As he passes her briefly he yells “Shield them well!” A ‘Hai!’ reassures him that yes, this was her plan. He can only hope that she is strong enough for this. As he shoots up, he sees her quickly slashing into several Hollows, her movements clean and precise, almost clinical. He is surprised—for some reason he’d thought of her battle movements as a graceful dance, but instead her face is blank and her kills as quick and cold as a veterinarian putting down an animal.

She looks up to see him in place, and a smile crosses her face, more like the lieutenant he knows. She leaps down and as the gap closes, he sees her sword dissolving and a grey cloud of ash covering the prostrated soldiers. The last thing he sees before the Hollows cover them up completely is the determined grip on her sword, and the boy who he’d sent to defeat the first Hollow. The look of pure admiration and adoration on his face is meant for both of them, he realizes.

Then he is facing the army of howling monsters underneath him, and he realizes gratefully that they’ve turned their attention towards him. _Thank you, Matsumoto._

Toushiro Hitsugaya raises Hyorinmaru towards the sky, hearing the clouds and thunder roar in response to his own Dragon’s call. He has no doubt that his lieutenant’s own sword will be able to protect his flock. Then he strikes the blade down, and the sky falls with it.

 

They arrive in the 78th district in the early hours of morning, their wounded transported on others’ backs. Fortunately, none of them are hurt enough wager an intervention of the Fourth. After having contacted the Seireitei, they are warned to wait in the district while an intervention team from the Ninth (to help them get home) and the Twelfth (to investigate the area) is dispatched to greet them.

Having lived in more comfortable parts of Rukongai, Toushiro is distraught at the sight of the shacks around them. The people in the area are obviously destitute, and the land is desolate. Their black robes are incongruous amongst the terrified crowd of civilians who peek at them warily, and Toushiro wonders why his robes cause that effect. Shouldn’t Shinigami have the opposite effect, as protectors of Soul Society?

He’s expected to see Matsumoto incredibly out of place, but his lieutenant surprises him yet again. So many times in one day makes him realize that maybe Matsumoto isn’t what he thought she was at first: a lazy, but competent Shinigami who knew how to party. Now he’s seen her as both a leader, caretaker (while calming the two youths in their group) and warrior. When the Hollows were all but gone, he had seen the ash cloud hold steadily against the heavy ice on top of it, Matsumoto holding it firmly in place until every member of their division had climbed out of the icy devastation.

And now she moves around the area and guides them as easily as if she were taking them on a tour of the bars of Seireitei. Hell, when they arrive at a slightly larger shack that strikes him as a worn-out inn, she walks in as though she owned the place and greets the scarred manager like an old friend. The man scowls for a moment, then his eyes widen and he suddenly grins:

“Little Flower, of course I remember you! Good to see you’ve gone up in life—how’s Fox-Face doing?”

The nickname reminds Toushiro of someone he cannot quite place, but before he can Matsumoto raises a dismissive hand: “oh, we’re not that close anymore, you know. We tread in different places.”

“Do you now?” the man frowns, then shrugs. “Doesn’t bother me, the boy wasn’t half as sympathetic as you were anyway. So, how can I help?”

“We’ll need some room,” she points towards outside the door, where their squad is laying down the injured. “And some alcohol.”

The innkeeper grins. “Of course, Little Flower. I still owed you a debt anyway, after you caught that nasty bandit anyway.”

“Ah, stop it Old Man, you’ll make me blush,” she smiles at him with all her teeth. When they’re outside again, Toushiro asks: “So, you know the man?”

Her smile turns sad for an instant: “I did a few jobs for him, in exchange for food and other stuff. He introduced me to alcohol as well. Nice guy, I’m glad he’s still alive despite the gangs.”

He stares at her for a moment. “How long did you live here?”

Her smile drops for an instant, and he sees a twinge of pain there. Of course her childhood couldn’t have been very happy, with an environment such as this. He cannot imagine how young ones can survive here, and what they do to do so. He thinks again about the other companion the innkeeper had mentioned and wonders if it was an old friend who grew up with her and left, but before he can ask the older man is back with several bottles of alcohol, and his squad greedily grab the beverage. Matsumoto beams and takes her own flask and another, which she pushes towards him: “It’s some great sake here—all home-made, none of that prissy stuff you find in Seireitei. Try some, Captain!”

He looks down at the content of the bottle, a slightly suspicious oily amber liquid that doesn’t remind him of any beverage at all floating in the dirty glass. “I think I’ll pass, thank you.”

“You’re no fun,” Matsumoto pouts at him. “It’s making the others feel better, though.”

He turns to see her proved right. The tension and weariness from the previous night was starting to drain, with smiles blossoming on several faces and even jokes shot out there and then. The dark girl, bandages wound around her torso and leg, laughed out loud as the blonde boy from the previous night recounted an Academy incident. Others eventually joined, and several Shinigami lightly punched the children on the shoulder, in sign of friendship.

“We make a great team in combat, don’t we?” Matsumoto winks at him as he turns around to face her. “Pure destructive force and sneaky spirit. Face it Captain, we’re the best! At this rate we’ll become the stuff of legends!”

Her optimistic tone makes him smile, even though his reply is strict: “We’re not doing this for sports, you know.”

“Yeah, but why not have fun at the same time?”

Toushiro looks at his lieutenant, her buoyant energy and bright hair making her look like the spirit of joy herself. Whatever she had faced in the past, whatever had turned her movements to cold death, it didn’t damage her endless optimism.  Or perhaps it was because of these things that she saw life this way. Because he’d gotten a glimpse of the terrifying warrior he’s chosen as his subordinate, and knew that she could only cover it up, for herself and others.

She is the kindest person he’s ever known.

He can’t tell her that directly, he knowsthat, but he realizes that he _does_ have a soft spot for the woman at his side. He finds himself hoping that she won’t leave it. And that when the time is right, he’ll be able to ask her fully about her pains, and she’ll be able to answer.

That's the definition of trust, and it binds them as surely as loyalty ever would.

“Remember that when we come back, you’ll have to file a report on what happened.”

“Whaaat? Can’t a girl get some recognition in this world and be spared the weight of paperwork?”

_“Matsumoto!”_


End file.
